1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a printing method and a printing device, and relates more particularly to a printing method and printing device for printing on a print medium by discharging ink droplets from nozzles.
2. Related Art
Printers that print to a print medium by discharging ink droplets from nozzles and that include scanner for reading a non-discharge detection pattern (test pattern) are known from the literature. Non-firing nozzles that cannot discharge ink are determined from the non-discharge detection pattern that is read by the scanner, and if anon-firing nozzle overlaps the barcode printing position, the barcode is printed by shifting the barcode printing position or rotating the barcode 90 degrees in order to prevent barcode reading errors. See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2003-145734.
The technology described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2003-145734 requires printing a non-discharge detection pattern, reading this printed non-discharge detection pattern with a scanner, identifying the non-firing nozzles from the scanned non-discharge detection pattern, determining if the non-firing nozzles overlap the barcode printing position, and calculating the appropriate barcode printing position accordingly. The printing process is thus complicated by the need to confirm the print quality and adjust the barcode printing position to an appropriate position based on the determined print quality.
This related art technology also requires a scanner to read the non-discharge detection pattern and consumes print media and ink in order to print the non-discharge detection pattern. Therefore, costs increase accordingly.
Accordingly, an unresolved problem with the related art taught in Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2003-145734 is that simplifying the printing process and reducing cost is difficult.